Hands are unto themselves bare and telling; they reveal a lot in their nakedness. And in action or use, they build character and a different or new facade. WordPress’ Weekly Challenge had me scan through last year’s images. While I only have a handful of worthy candidates, I selected two.

The first photograph in the Lens section captures a slice of today’s popular culture where very young girls routinely are painting their nails. In December 2011 Pantone, the standard for color charting, selected tangerine tango (click here) as the color to spread across the 2012 fashion scene. That orangey orange slipped quickly into the commercial market. Since this photograph was taken in autumn 2011, my granddaughter was months ahead of the announcement for 2012’s color choice.

I tried to capture a touch of humor in the second image where pumpkin pulp and seeds became fodder for a shoot. They foreshadow what may come: roasting seeds or making pie from the pulp. But the fun was in the possibilities.

Universal Hands

Are hands one of the most photographed subjects? Possibly. Certainly they represent the human condition. Even in their quiet (as with the example from Google Images of Universal Hands) they symbolize action and connection and promise and relationships. Hands can speak volumes in their movement or silence. They fill the spirit with their clapping, clasping, strumming, counting, praying, signing, grabbing, waving, planting, playing, holding, pointing, aging, drawing, symbolizing, resting, philosophizing…They even produce smiles with their creativity. Thanks again WordPress, t’was another fun challenge.

Note: As always I welcome any comment about this post or any other on my blog.

12 Responses to WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

A blouse, crinkled paper from an unwrapped present, a pregnant belly … the first picture shouts possibilities to the viewer and allows them to be involved … complicit in the pictures meaning. I like the first one … can you tell? 😉

Dear Sally – a very interesting topic indeed. Hands are so fascinating!!! I think that the first picture of hands you present is by far the most interesting because they concentrate on the hands alone. It’s like you have written a poetry about hands. One can let one’s imagination run wild and spin many a tale about these hands – whose, age, life of the person, what doing ….. very well done and can you imagine if you took this further and took pictures of different hands – and only the hands – with different backgrounds and different people of different ages and sex!!! What poetry you could spin!!!

Gracie, I took various shots of hands side-by-side and each separately. But both hands filled the foreground just right. She’s wearing a blouse that I had just given her. It was the perfect backdrop for the deep tangerine polish. Thanks, Sally